On the PowerBook, this action took 14 sec. Using iMovie, I added a four-second "scale down" transition between two digital video clips. #XBENCH TEST MAC#Again, I'd have expected the Power Mac to be faster than the iMac. Launching five applications (Address Book, Adobe Photoshop CS, Mail, Safari and TextEdit) took 35 sec. I'm not sure why the Power Mac took a little longer to start up, unless the 4GB of RAM made for a lengthier memory check. The PowerBook took one minute flat to go from start-up chime to desktop the iMac took 43 sec. The processor speed on all three machines was set at "highest." To get an idea of what the Power Mac can do in the real world, I compared it against the other two machines on start-up time, simultaneous launch of five applications, an iMovie transition rendering and the application of the watercolor filter on a 46MB Photoshop image using Photoshop CS. What a difference video RAM - and a second processor - make. The muliple-CPU render test, not surprisingly, took even less: 42.6 sec. And on the Power Mac, no doubt due to that 256MB ATI graphics card, the same test took just 73.6 sec. on the iMac, which also has a 64MB Nvdia card, the test took 108.3 sec. On the PowerBook, which has a 64MB Nvidia card, the single-CPU render test took 118 sec. I also ran Cinebench for a different view of how the three machines stack up, with a greater focus on their graphics capabilities. Powerbook G4 (see story), with the 1.33-GHz G4 processor and a 5,400-rpm drive, got 125.įor comparison's sake, a first-generation dual 1.8-GHz G5 Power Mac yielded a score of 208 when I tested it with Xbench back in February - and that was after installing the Western Digital Raptor hard drive I now have in the iMac (see story). My iMac G5 (see story), with the 1.8-GHz G5 chip and a superfast 10,000-rpm hard drive, scored 165 on the Xbench test. The test yielded a score of 249, far above any other Power Mac I've used and notably faster than the other two machines I had on hand for comparison purposes. How fast is this Power Mac? As I have done in the past, I ran the Xbench benchmarking app for a quick look at how those two G5 chips perform. Of course, ideally, with heat comes speed, and the new Power Mac offers plenty. Assuming that those temperatures are correct, the generally low level of fan noise was impressive.Īn inside shot of the dual 2.5-GHz Power Mac, with lower fan assembly removed to show the interior. I could hear the fans rev up incrementally, pulling in cooler air, but they generated only a moderate amount of noise. Temperature Monitor reported the "CPU A and B die temperature" as 189.9 degrees and 184.9 degrees, respectively the Memory Controller heat sink was reported as a toasty 172.6 degrees and the drive bay came in at a relatively balmy 81.5. After launching a little app called Temperature Monitor, I revved up the dual 2.5 and taxed the processors to see how hot it would get. That doesn't mean, however, that it doesn't get hot inside the all-aluminum case. D'oh! But with those G5 chips fiery hot, the new cooling system was needed to keep the internal fans from spinning up to vacuum cleaner levels when you max out the processors. I have to admit that it is a bit disconcerting to see a warning printed inside the Power Mac's case that suggests you unplug the computer right away and to "consult manual" should you see liquid leaking out. Apple touts four discrete "thermal zones," a variety of low-speed fans in each of those zones, 21 temperature monitors and the new, maintenance-free "closed-loop liquid cooling system." The 2.5-GHz G5 chip runs very, very hot, requiring a variety of solutions to keep this machine from self-igniting. This is Apple's first liquid-cooled Power Mac, and as best I can tell, the cooling system works as advertised. (The standard graphics card is the ATI Radeon 9600 XT - upgrading to the 9800 will set you back $300.) Like other Power Macs, it boasts the usual assortment of USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 and 800 ports, and an AirPort Extreme card for wireless networking. #XBENCH TEST SERIAL#The review machine was packed with 4GB of RAM (it can take twice that amount), a 160GB Maxtor Serial ATA hard drive (with a 250GB Serial ATA hard drive available as a $100 built-to-order option), an ATI Radeon 9800 XT graphics card that offers 256MB of video RAM, and an 8x SuperDrive. But it offers more than enough warp-factor power for just about anything this side of genomic sequencing. No, it's not quite the 3.0-GHz G5 Steve Jobs optimistically promised in 2003. Thanks to Apple Computer's review program, I've been able to use one of the new Power Macs for the past three weeks or so, and I can tell you that if you need unadulterated processing power, the dual 2.5 is worth the wait.
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